The Art of running a Community Bus service

Tuesday 17th March 2026

2026 is a very special year for Cuckmere Buses. The long standing East Sussex community bus operator, based in the village of Berwick, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. That’s an incredible achievement which is undoubtedly down to the commitment and dedication of an amazing band of volunteer drivers and ‘back office’ staff and particularly the enduring and effective professional leadership, for the last 37 years, of Managing Director, Philip Ayers.

Indeed, Philip was closely involved in the setting up of Cuckmere Community Bus when it began life in 1976, having moved south from the Crosville bus company on Merseyside to work at Southdown, the bus company based in Brighton which, as part of the National Bus Company, ran a significant bus network stretching from East Hampshire across West and East Sussex. As a young, keen, newly appointed Operations Manager, Philip was given the job of talking to people all over East Sussex keen to re-instate bus routes withdrawn in a major retrenchment by Southdown five years earlier in 1971 when a raft of unprofitable services in deep rural areas had been withdrawn.

One of these was service 98, an eight-times-a-day route from Seaford via the Cuckmere Valley to Berwick with half the journeys continuing to Hailsham. This had left many residents of affected villages isolated from any form of public transport at a time (in those days) when 40% of households had no access to a car. Campaigning by the local branch of the Women’s Institute led the county council, Sussex Rural Community Council and Southdown to investigate the practicalities, and then initiate the introduction of, a volunteer-operated bus service.

It was quite a novel form of operation back in 1976. A similar scheme had begun under the banner of National Norfolk in conjunction with the Eastern Counties bus company in Fakenham providing scheduled bus routes in rural north Norfolk with other schemes, some with paid staff, in Bedfordshire, Essex and Lancashire in conjunction with United Counties, Eastern National and Ribble respectively.

Many of these schemes disappeared after a few years but Cuckmere Buses (as the not-for-profit company/charity has become known) has not only stayed the course but now operates a network of 20 different bus routes carrying 88,000 passengers a year in this part of East Sussex with a roll call of around 50 trained volunteer drivers and other non-driving volunteers, a fleet of nine modern 16-seat low floor minibuses (with regular investment in new vehicles), and recently recording a surplus of nearly £10,000 which is being ploughed back into the fleet and bus services.

Even more impressive, Philip was telling me during one of our regular meet ups last week, following funding discussions with a local District Council he hopes to soon be in a position to place an order for a battery-electric minibus with delivery anticipated in the autumn.

I blogged about my journeys on the splendid summer weekend route 47 – the Cuckmere Valley Ramblerbus – in September 2022 (as seen in the above photo) but I’ve been meaning to catch up with another initiative Cuckmere Buses introduced in September 2023 which links three art venues in East Sussex through a bespoke Friday to Sunday, four-return-journeys-a-day bus route between Eastbourne and Lewes.

Route 39 is funded by Eastbourne’s Towner Gallery and Charleston which has premises at both Charleston Farm and, more recently, in Lewes town centre as well as support from the South Downs National Park.

A minibus has received a bespoke livery promoting the service which only stops at the three arts venues together with the villages of Alfriston, Litlington and East Dean as well as Seven Sisters Country Park aimed at attracting visitors and tourists as well as art and culture lovers.

The route began as a three month pilot initiated by Sussex Modern (a business led tourism consortium) to connect cultural and other East Sussex iconic venues during the 2023 Turner Prize season at the Towner.

Following positive reaction it returned in Spring 2024 and again in Spring 2025 after which the partners were so encouraged with the response, further funding was committed last year enabling the service to continue through the most recent 2025/26 winter months,

It was against that positive background I wasn’t unduly surprised last Friday to find six passengers already forming a queue well before the first departure of the day at 11:00 outside the Charleston venue in Lewes.

This venue occupies former municipal offices – both the County Council and District Council at different times – but since September 2023 it’s become host to art and culture exhibitions and associated retail, as well as acting as a community space.

The minibus arrived into Lewes on its first journey of the day from Eastbourne on time at 10:54 and volunteer driver, Mark, soon had all seven of us on board and we set off at 11:00.

It’s a straightforward run out of Lewes and along the A27 through Firle to reach the first venue, Charleston Farmhouse which is accessed along a narrow road-come-track south of the A27.

The property dates from the 16th century and has long been associated with the arts and culture scene with the Bloomsbury Group taking it on as a retreat in 1916 when artists Venessa Belo and Duncan Grant moved there.

As an indication of its popularity, when we pulled up in the car park at 11:15, five of the six passengers on board alighted leaving just one other and myself on board.

The next stop was in Alfriston coach park. This picturesque village is hugely popular with tourists as well as acting as a base for walkers enjoying the scenic delights of this part of the National Park and indeed our passenger alighted here to commence a walk.

After a few minutes break to wait time Mark set off again and crossed over the Cuckmere River to head south down the east side of the valley through the delightful village of Litlington to arrive at the entrance to the Seven Sisters Country Park on the A259 coast road where buses on Brighton & Hove’s frequent Coaster branded route 12A/12X connect Eastbourne with Seaford, Newhaven and Brighton.

After another short pause at our final stop in East Dean on the A259. we climbed up to the top of the Downs where we turned off the coast road and made our way down the long twisty incline into Eastbourne via the town’s southern approach which makes for convenient access to reach the Towner gallery, where we arrived on time at 11:51.

There was already one passenger waiting for the return journey back to Lewes at 12:00 but I left Mark to enjoy his short break before he set off again back to Lewes.

It’s great to see cultural venues, the National Park and tourism interests coming together to promote and fund initiatives like this and encourage travel by bus accompanied by some excellent publicity and promotion produced by Cuckmere Buses.

Copies of the winter timetable book were available on board the bus (complete with clearly stated dates of validity)…

… together with details of route 39 inside including an advert for the Charleston exhibition.

That’s how you do it. Perhaps some of our large Groups could learn a lesson or two from this exemplar.

The actual 50th Anniversary of Cuckmere Buses is on Monday 26th October, a date etched on the minds of many a long standing bus manager as also heralding the start of the deregulated era which began in 1986, ten years after Cuckmere Buses hit the road on the same date in 1976.

That it has survived through the ensuing turmoils and challenges the bus industry and local authorities have faced during the last 50 years is truly inspiring and indicates why Cuckmere Buses was so well deserving of its Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service bestowed in 2006.

Philip Ayers has done a truly amazing job which can be traced back over all those 50 years, and the Sussex Arts Shuttle is just the latest example of an excellent initiative.

Roger French

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